Sensors and other EAS equipment have an installation deployment cost associated with the installation of wires for the transfer of information. Wireless communication has been costly and the communication protocol stacks consume product memory. Additionally, a method for seamlessly connecting a wired network device to a wireless network has not been easily and cost effectively devised.
The use of wired connections for low cost sensors has been extensively used. However wired connections increase deployment burden. Higher cost wireless solutions implementing complex communication protocol stacks have been used in some deployments but are not effective in low cost sensors and deployments due to the expensive processing and memory costs associated with implementing complex communication protocol stacks. Some wireless solutions require configuration and setups that are time consuming and inflexible, increasing the deployment and maintenance cost.
Attempts to lower costs have been attempted with 2.45 GHz standards, such as those specified by Zigbee, a suite of high level communication protocols using small, low-power digital radios based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (“IEEE”) standard 802.15.4 for wireless personal area networks (“WPANs”). However, the protocol stack as defined for Zigbee consumes a large amount of memory and requires a rather complex configuration. Other networks residing in the 2.45 GHz and higher frequency ranges occupy the same bandwidth space as customer solutions using IEEE 802.11, i.e., “Wi-Fi.” These frequencies introduce challenges with Information Technology (“IT”) wireless network interference and increase the maintenance burden on IT departments.
Therefore, what is needed is an inexpensive system and method for wirelessly interconnecting EAS devices and EAS sensors while minimizing interference with existing wireless systems.